Designer v 2; rope mode not working unless 'stabiliser' is selected

[GeffersB]

When I first used Affinity 2, the rope mode worked fine. Now it has stopped.

Or so I thought; after a lot of experimentation I discovered that although you can turn rope/window mode on, they only work if you have stabiliser selected. Thought I'd mention it to save others from spending hours searching the net/documentation.

Windows 10

Many thanks

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

As I understand it, the entire purpose of rope/window is to control how the stabilizer works. So, to me, it makes perfect sense that they only have an effect when you enable the stabilizer.

[R C-R]

17 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

As I understand it, the entire purpose of rope/window is to control how the stabilizer works.

Just just how but also if it stabilisation used. IOW, the Stabiliser checkbox is the on/off switch for that function.

[Pšenda]

11 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

As I understand it, the entire purpose of rope/window is to control how the stabilizer works.

And it is also stated in the Help.

https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/draw_linesAndShapes.html

[GeffersB]

Fair comment, but the usual convention is that if a feature is 'off' (I.e. stabiliser unchecked) any related options should be disabled.

[GarryP]

12 minutes ago, GeffersB said:

if a feature is 'off' (I.e. stabiliser unchecked) any related options should be disabled.

Agreed.
Unless someone has a very good reason otherwise, if the Stabiliser functionality is switched OFF then the Stabiliser options should not be enabled.

[R C-R]

They are not enabled, just settable.

[GarryP]

9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

They are not enabled, just settable.

Okay, I’ll bite, for now...

Can you explain the difference?

Also, under which conditions would the user need/want to set these options when the functionality is not switched on?

In UI terms, enabled usually means ‘can be changed by the user’, e.g. settable.

Some definitions from random web pages:

• “The Enable property controls whether or not the user interface control responds to user interaction.”
• “When the Enabled property of a control is set to false, the control typically appears dimmed. If the control is an input element, the browser prevents the user from clicking or typing in it.”
• etc. etc.

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, R C-R said:

They are not enabled, just settable.

It would be clearer if they were only settable when enabled (or alternatively, automatically enabled when the setting is changed).

[Dan C]

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

It would be clearer if they were only settable when enabled (or alternatively, automatically enabled when the setting is changed).

I agree, and I will be logging this as an improvement with our developers now

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

Okay, I’ll bite, for now...

Can you explain the difference?

It just means that the stabilizer feature's Window & Rope parameters can be set whether or not the Stabilizer is enabled.

I suppose the developers thought some users might find it useful to set or change those parameters even while it is disabled, but that is just a guess.

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

Also, under which conditions would the user need/want to set these options when the functionality is not switched on?

As with the vast majority of parameters in Preferences?

 

32 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I suppose the developers thought some users might find it useful to set or change those parameters even while it is disabled, but that is just a guess.

If only its mode could be selected for Stabilization, then disabling the mode selection would make sense. However, since Stabilization parameters can be set more comprehensively (i.e. not only Mode but also its parameters - length/window size), enabling the setting of these parameters even when Stabilization is not selected makes sense.

[R C-R]

23 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

However, since Stabilization parameters can be set more comprehensively (i.e. not only Mode but also its parameters - length/window size), enabling the setting of these parameters even when Stabilization is not selected makes sense.

I don't disagree that it makes sense but I can see how it might confuse some users.

[Pšenda]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

but I can see how it might confuse some users.

Many users may also be confused by the possibility of setting parameters in the Stroke panel, even though the tool that directly uses the stroke is not selected/active.

[GeffersB]

It sure as heck confused me!

Thanks to you all for your responses to my maiden speech!🤣Glad I raised the issue.